As has often been noted, baseball has a marathon season. From April through September, major league clubs each play 162 games over roughly 182 days on the calendar. Usually, cream rises to the top and hopefully the best teams are the ones still standing come playoff time.
Of course, as we’ve seen countless times in recent years in any professional team sport, what’s most important for a club is simply getting into the playoffs. Often, the team with the greatest momentum (the 2011 Cardinals, the 2011-12 Los Angeles Kings in hockey and the 2011 New York Giants in football) builds on that head of steam and marches triumphantly through the playoffs to become league champion.
Through Sunday’s game, the Cardinals are chugging along just barely over .500. Their fast start of 20-11 in their first 31 games has largely evaporated in a sub-par May and a basically flat June.
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There are numerous reasons for the Cards’ decline since that quick getaway. First, they have been decimated by injuries to key players. Pitching ace Chris Carpenter has yet to throw a ball in a regular season game in 2012, and the timetable for his return remains uncertain. A few weeks ago he was joined by Jaime Garcia, the Redbirds’ only left-handed starter. Garcia is having shoulder problems that could very well keep him out of action for the rest of the year.
Key position players, including Lance Berkman, Jon Jay, Allen Craig, Matt Carpenter and Skip Schumaker, have missed considerable time while on the Disabled List. While their replacements did satisfactory work in their absence, the Cardinals probably gave up half a dozen or so victories by not fielding their finest product.
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The pitching staff is wearing down, too. Lance Lynn, thrust into a starting role when Chris Carpenter became injured in spring training, seems to be running out of gas in his last three starts. Manager Mike Matheny might consider skipping Lynn’s next start in the rotation. That, coupled with the All-Star break (although Lynn will be on the National League’s All-Star roster), might give Lynn some much needed rest at this point in the season.
The biggest challenge the Cards need to address is their leaky bullpen. Not one reliever has shown the ability to come in and shut down the opposition without adding some unneeded drama and tension. Victor Marte and Fernando Salas seem to give up runs whenever they appear, and Eduardo Sanchez already has been sent back to Memphis to try and cure his wildness. Marc Rzepczynski, Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte all have been pummeled much more than you’d like to see of the key members of a bullpen.
Manager Matheny has demonstrated his status as a rookie manager on a number of questionable and maybe costly decisions as well. Still, that’s what you expect from a rookie leader. Nothing teaches as well as experience.
At the halfway point of the season, it’s safe to say that the Cardinals have a fine offensive unit that can score sufficient runs most of the time, and a starting rotation that more often than not delivers quality appearances. The bullpen, though, seems less than adequate for a team that has its eyes once again on post-season play.
Don’t be surprised, therefore, if general manager John Mozeliak pulls off a trade this month to bolster the Cardinals’ shaky relief corps.
Evan Makovsky
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